Or however you spell it! We’ve seen it spelled about ten different ways on different hand-printed signs around town. Many of the cocina economicas, including the House of Screws around the corner, had signs advertising that they were baking them and would sell them para llevar, or for take out. So what is this mysterious thing, you ask?
Well, here’s a photo. Does that help? No? Well, let us try to explain. Around these parts, the Mayans celebrate the Day of the Dead at the end of October. This holiday is called Halloween in Gringolandia, but the Mayans call it Hanal Pixan, which means “soul food.” As the holiday approaches, the buzz increases about eating pibs during the celebrations. And when Hanel Pixan was over, Yucatecans were greeting us in person or on the phone asking, “Did you eat your pibs?”
Uhhh… no.
But then yesterday, our aforementioned Mayan housekeeper and her nubile daughter came to clean, and brought us two fresh-baked pibs. From what we understand, these are large tamales with a chicken, anchiote and chaya filling. The tamale dough is made of corn (what else?) and has black beans mixed into it. The whole thing is wrapped in banana leaves and baked underground in a pit, call a pib in Mayan, hence the nickname. I’m sure in the modern households in Merida they bake their pibs in ovens these days, but I guarantee you the ones we got were baked the old-fashioned way.
We had our pibs for lunch. Or rather, we had one. We really couldn’t even finish that one. Each one weighed about five pounds. We’re not kidding. And the crust was tough and leathery. The chicken inside was tasty and tender, but there didn’t seem to be enough of it. Another curious thing: one of our pibs was square and the other was round.
We consider ourselves very fortunate to have the opportunity to eat authentic pibs baked in the Mayan earth. But someday we’d like to try a haute cuisine version that might be a little easier to chew.
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u know about the mucbil pollo,i am from merida, and it has been that way all the time,i mean that’s the way it is,and i always liked to eat it with a cup of coffee,weird isn’t?? and i loved it now i miss it but i hope to be able to eat it again pretty soon.
p.s. smile:D
This year, we’ve been invited to share the mucbil pollos at the home of aforementioned housekeeper and family. That will be in Oxtapacab, and the mucbil pollos will probably be accompanied by pavo en relleno negro.
Here’s a curious thing. We told them we were going to be in Michoacan for Day of the Dead this year, and they told us they would *postpone* their Hanal Pixan celebration so they could do it with us!! So we’ll be going to their house on November 8 for mucbil pollo and other goodies.
When we said to them, “Uh, but isn’t Hanal Pixan on November 1?”, the Mayan woman laughed and said it didn’t matter… no importa. We are supposing that she wisely realizes that “the Dead” really don’t care what day it is.
So if you’re looking for Day of the Dead information from us, tune in after November 8 and we’ll have lots to tell!
Hi WGs,
Mucbipollos have now gone international. They’ve made it all the way to Canada thanks to a group of yucateco friends that have chosen Montreal as their new residence.
So if you ever want to spend a different below 0 (Celsius) Hanal Pixan in the land of maple syrup, don’t hesistate to contact us. By the way, we do the haute cuisine version with tons of pork and chicken… and I’ll assure you, it is as good as the best pib anywhere in the white pueblo.
[…] Our celebrations aren’t going to end there. […]
You fared better than John Lloyd Stephens. He wrote of this 1841 October celebration: “We have reason to remember this fete from one untoward circumstance. A friendly neighbor, who…was in the habit of sending us fruit and dulces more than we could eat, this day, on the top of a large undisposed-of present, sent us a huge piece of mukbipoyo. It was as hard as an oak plank and as thick as six of them; and having already overtasked ourselves to reduce the pile on the table, when this came, in a fit of desparation we took it out into the courtyard and buried it. There it would have remained till this day but for a malicious dog which accompanied them on their next visit; he passed into the courtyard, rooted it up, and, while we were pointing to the empty platters as our acknowledgment of their kindness, this villanous dog sneaked through the sala and out at the front door with the pie in his mouth, apparently grown bigger since it was buried.”